Scott Brown has told the Daily Mail that he’s backing Gary Mackay-Steven to settle quickly at the club.

The Mail claims the 24-year-old will either move to the Scottish giants in the summer on a free transfer or will sign before the end of the month if Celtic cough up a fee of around £200,000.

Either way, Brown seems confident the club will get their man but has hinted Mackay-Steven’s biggest challenge won’t happen out on the pitch.

“Coming to a club as big as Celtic, it takes everyone six months to understand the fan-base,” said Brown.

“Even when it comes to going out to a restaurant in Glasgow, you find half the people love you and the other half hate you. It’s a big thing for newcomers to come in and accept this Rangers and Celtic divide - but I’m sure he’ll flourish.”

Players taking time to settle is a common problem at a lot of clubs but Mackay-Steven is slightly more mature and should be well equipped to deal with the situation.

Fortunately for the winger, he will be surrounded by plenty of Celtic stars who know all about the difficulty in adapting in the area Brown mentions.

The worry will be that it could mentally affect him at the start of his Celtic career, but the club’s rivalry with Rangers is one of the biggest in Europe and something which isn’t going to evaporate any time soon.

In short, he needs to get used to it quickly when he does sign on the dotted line of a Celtic contract.

Lewis Doe

Lewis Doe is a freelance writer and editor who seeks to bring you the biggest, smallest and most interesting stories from the football world. Lewis has previously written for some of the biggest football news and opinion sites in the world including FootballFanCast and Goal.com International. Lewis is also experienced writing in the betting industry and aims to deliver his stories with up to date factual and statistical information. He hopes to sum up stories for the site and provide an angle on the issue moving forward.Lewis is HITC Sport's La Liga correspondent.